UNINVITED

Second Incident

     The rays of the sun showered the room with a cuddling warmth. It had risen seemingly just as fast as it had set with the night rolling over in the blink of an eye. Her tired body could barely lift her eyelids enough to make out what was right in front of her. Tsubaki Nise, Neurobiological Data Manager, R&D Department. The words scrawled across the work ID still wrapped in her hand felt as though it’d belonged to someone else. She didn’t even manage to toss her belongings onto their usual pile before falling asleep the night before, let alone change out of her alcohol laced clothes.

     Waking up unusually early, Tsubaki peered around at the room before her. Clothing lining every crevice and corner, notebooks and folders poured on top of one another, obscuring the top of her desk. Empty coffee cups and water bottles suffocating the trash bin. Her room was in shambles. In many ways, a depiction of herself.

     She sat down atop her bed, simply staring at the date on her cellphone. With it being the weekend, she was free for the day without any plans. A reality that she always had trouble adjusting to. Somehow the chaos of her usually busy schedule kept her on her toes. But the lack of that preoccupation oddly sent chills down her spine.

     She tossed her phone aside and fell backwards on to her mattress. Taking a deep breath, she ran her hands through her hair, watching its faded pink dye strands rolled off the tips of her fingers. Staring upwards, she thought back to herself on how her ceiling hadn’t quite come off as staunch white as she’d always assumed. Maybe it had something to do with the angle of the sun early in the morning, or perhaps it had always been this way, and her mind was simply playing tricks on her. Either way, she got the sense that something had changed that morning. She couldn’t tell what that change was; but things felt different than they did before.

     Tsubaki reached her hand over to her side, grabbing her phone as its melodic ringtone blared endlessly. It was her sister, Mitsu. She caught herself staring blindly at the incoming call. She knew she was going to answer it, but for some reason she felt a surge of reluctance pass through her, preventing her from moving. She watched the phone ring on and on as she simply looked upon its dainty animation. A rather unique element that she’d never really taken notice of until now. It was a picture of a small smiley face nestled within a soft pulsating orb. With each ring, it would subtly bounce, creating a ripple of waves beneath it that faded off as they stretched into the distance. Somehow the sensation it conjured felt alive… Almost as though touching the pulse of a heartbeat.

     Tsubaki slowly reached her thumb over and tapped the screen. “Moshi-mosh?” she called out while still laying relaxed on top of her bed.

“Nani?!”

     Her eyes opened out like a blossomed water lily. She sat up and clenched her bottom lip between her teeth. Her outburst expression had transitioned within seconds as she fell into a deep mull.

“Are you alone?”

     She held the phone tight to her ear as though not to let a single word escape. A worrisome touch scathed through the tone of her voice. “If they already closed the doors, then it’s impossible for you to turn back now.” Tsubaki collapsed back onto her bed defeated. “Just forget about it, once you get here we’ll figure everything out. It’s not like you could stop the train halfway or something. Just be careful, God knows I can’t afford to have you getting lost.”

     Tsubaki laid her hand across her face, covering her eyes. She felt a loss of control both within and without. She couldn’t help but sense that the universe was stretching farther and farther away from her grasp. “I’m hanging up,” she uttered, “just text me as you reach each stop, then call me when you get here.”

     After ending the call, she flapped her hands out to the sides with her eyes closed. Freeing up her mind, she let herself sink into the comfort of; for once, deciding not to care anymore.

     Tsubaki glanced down at her watch as she exited the train at Omoimusubi Station. It was 11 a.m., a few minutes past the expected arrival time of the shinkansen heading in from Inagi.

     She should already be here by now, Tsubaki worried. As she trotted her way up to the center of the station, she checked through her phone for any possible missed calls. The last text she’d received was an update stating that the train was only one stop away. That was almost twenty minutes ago, and she hadn’t received anything since. Getting a bit worried, Tsubaki slowly picked up her speed as she swerved in and out of the parcels of people crowding the busy station.

     Arriving in the main lobby, Tsubaki eyed the South exit at the further end of the station. She could make out her contour perfectly, Yumeko, her ten-year-old sister, was leaning against the wall at the far-right end of the entryway. Dressed in a light blue windbreaker jacket, a pink skirt with diamond patterned grey and white leggings, blue sneakers, and holding on to her small pink suitcase. Tsubaki immediately picked up her pace and marched over towards her.

Shove!

     Tsubaki suddenly found herself tumbling to the ground, drawing the attention of the people nearby as she collided with the floor. She quickly looked back, adamant about finding who had knocked her over… but no one caught her eye. Strange, she thought. She could still feel the pressure on her shoulder from being shoved. Still scanning the area, she briefly traded glances with a man fitted in a long black coat with reddish brown hair, but before she could get a good look at his face, he turned away and walked off in the opposite direction, as did everyone else. All the while there was a faint ring, like chimes in a light breeze that barely grazed Tsubaki’s ears. She then began to hear it resounding throughout the station; until it slowly dissipated.

     Picking herself up off the floor and returning her focus on to the South exit, she was struck with disbelief. At first, she rejected what she initially saw, double checking through the waves of people passing through the entrance. However, there was no mistaking it; Yumeko had vanished. The painful thought hit her like cold ice; and she caught herself fighting off a wave of anxiety.

     A kid left alone in this massive station. Could she have been taken?

     Tsubaki panicked and darted over towards the exit. She ran outside swinging her head left to right, scouring her surroundings, but failed to catch a glimpse of her anywhere. Her heart started racing as it grew harder and harder for her to breathe. She peered back and forth, but it was like looking straight into a carousel. Everything was moving too fast for her to keep up.

     Terrible scenarios began creeping into her thoughts; she was frozen solid as the disorderly environment around her began to sound muffled. Until… a tiny voice bellowed out to her from behind.

“Tsubaki!”

     Twisting herself around as quickly as possible, her fears had thankfully been eluded as Yumeko appeared before her. She had excitement stained onto her face with a smile that stretched from cheek to cheek. Tsubaki brought her nerves down from the edge as she asked Yumeko where she’d just come from. “I was over there,” Yumeko gleefully responded. Following the direction of Yumeko’s finger she was met with an attractive window display of beautifully decorated delicacies. “Ii niyoi!” Yumeko cried out in joy.

     Tsubaki was so struck with worry that she hadn’t even noticed the sweet aroma. “Can we get one? Please,” Yumeko begged while glancing up at her big sister. Tsubaki wanted to match Yumeko’s excitement, but there was an inauspicious shadow of apprehension brushing down the stretch of her spine. From the moment she’d answered Yumeko’s phone call, her mouth had since been filled with a bad taste.

     It was just past 7:30 a.m. earlier in the day. The phone rang on and on without an answer as Tsubaki feverishly sat in her room trying endlessly to speak with Mitsu, who had been taking care of Yumeko back in Inagi following the passing of their mother a few years ago. Tsubaki wasn’t close with Mitsu, who was two years younger than her, having grown apart due to her busy work schedule keeping her distant from the rest of her family. In truth, their interactions often ended in arguments over who should be responsible for Yumeko. But at the very least she would always be able to get a hold of her when needed. Now, Yumeko was heading to Megiri all alone, and Mitsu was oddly out of touch.

     Since she knew Yumeko had her phone, Tsubaki tried messaging some of Mitsu’s close friends, but they all said the same thing: They couldn’t remember the last time they’d heard from her. Surprised at how detached her sister had grown, she thought back to her conversation with Yumeko just a few moments prior. Yumeko had made her way to the nearest station and boarded a shinkansen bound for Megiri. She would need to buy a ticket to pass through the gates, which meant she would need money. It would make sense if Mitsu was there to help her, which made Tsubaki wonder if Mitsu was acting out of spite, or worse, if she was going through a mental breakdown. The past few months had been particularly tense following Tsubaki snubbing Mitsu’s request for her to move back to Inagi. But if Mitsu was closing herself off from the rest of the world, then her plight for Tsubaki to come home could have been a call for help.

     It all felt strange to Tsubaki, and while she considered whether she was just thinking too far into things, it was true that Mitsu was nowhere to be found. Thus, Tsubaki could only think of one thing; and that was to ask herself, what the hell was going on?

     Back then, Tsubaki had considered phoning the police to have them search for Mitsu’s whereabouts, but something yanked at her initiative, causing her to hold off. I’ll wait until Yumeko arrived in Megiri; is what her own sense of reason had bargained. With her priority at the moment being Yumeko’s wellbeing. And therefore, she never made the call; and as of yet, has heard nothing from her elusive sister. Now, staring at Yumeko, Tsubaki was asking herself the same questions all over again. What the hell is going on?

     Tsubaki rested her hand on Yumeko’s shoulder as she crouched down in front of her. “Yumeko, who sent you to Megiri?” she calmly asked. “You told me to stay with you if anything ever happened,” Yumeko troublingly replied.

“If ‘anything’ ever happened?”

     Yumeko nodded her head. Her eyes were solemn and diverted from Tsubaki’s more direct demeanor. It was in complete contrast to the ecstatic Yumeko from just a few moments ago. Tsubaki took note of her shift in character, but she still wanted answers. She couldn’t afford to be left in the dark.

“Can I see her phone; you have it, right?”

     Yumeko reached over into her coat pocket, pulling out Mitsu’s cellphone. Upon checking, it was clear that Yumeko was using a mobile ticket bought through the S-Train GO! app. Yumeko likely wouldn’t know how to navigate the app herself, or have the card information to complete the purchase, making it more plausible that Mitsu, for some reason, had sent Yumeko to Megiri. But even so, everything just seemed far from comprehension.

“Did she give this to you…?

“I don’t get it, Yumeko. How did you get all the way here?”

     Yumeko simply looked towards Tsubaki with her eyes wavering and head tipped low. Tsubaki pressed her hands against her thighs as she stood herself up, convinced that the situation reeked of Mitsu’s antics. She looked down upon Yumeko, torn between what she should do next. Yumeko stood with her hands fondling the handle of her suitcase as she looked around the station at the passing pedestrians. With how the world had enclosed in on her within the past few hours, Tsubaki was coming to know the true meaning of being caught between a rock and a hard place.

     Until she heard word of her sister’s whereabouts there was no way that she could send Yumeko back to Inagi by herself. Her only options were to either let Yumeko stay until she figured out what happened to Mitsu, or head back to Inagi with her as soon as possible. Tsubaki knew it was the latter decision that made the most sense, but nonetheless, she decided against it. Her choice was to stay in Megiri for the remainder of the day; and if she didn’t find out anything by tomorrow morning, then she would take the next train back to Inagi.

     Able to calm down for once, Tsubaki finally took joy in meeting Yumeko’s interest in satisfying her sweet tooth. “It’ll be difficult to carry anything we buy here on the train. There’s a great bakery nearby my house. Before that, why don’t we go check out some of the other stores?” Tsubaki pushed the phone into her pocket and stretched out her hand towards Yumeko’s. Her face returned to the playful expression from before as she reached her arm out and wrapped it around Tsubaki’s. With the two of them interlocked with one another, they headed into the bustling Megiri city.